Tom Quick Inn owner suggests building as courthouse option

The owner of the Tom Quick Inn would like Pike County commissioners to consider the large historic inn and restaurant as an alternative to building a courthouse addition.

BETH BRELJE

The owner of the Tom Quick Inn would like Pike County commissioners to consider the large historic inn and restaurant as an alternative to building a courthouse addition.

"I'm a little surprised I didn't get a call. Nobody to my knowledge even took a look," said owner Craig Sheinker.

The bar and restaurant, across the street from the courthouse in Milford, has been closed for about two years. The 17-room inn upstairs from the restaurant is still in operation.

Those rooms could be converted into offices, Sheinker said.

The 8,000-square-foot main level bar and restaurant and the 5,000-square-foot lower-level nightclub could each be converted into courtrooms, Sheinker said.

"It makes sense, instead of tearing down a historic landmark building," he said, referring to the green-and-white judges' chambers, a home next to the courthouse, built in 1898.

To make way for the courthouse expansion, the judges' chambers will be demolished unless someone wants to move it.

The Tom Quick Inn is up for sale for $1.7 million. Pike commissioners have budgeted $10 million for the expansion.

The Pike County legal system has outgrown the courthouse, built in 1872. Today, the building presents security risks.

There is no conference room to isolate people, and no room to sequester witnesses in a trial.

During high-tension court hearings, adversaries, or criminals and victims, can end up near each other. Fights between parties have happened, and sheriff's deputies must step in.

Shackled criminals are walked from jail cells across the street at the sheriff's building to the courthouse instead of being held in the same building.

With sheriff's deputies for security, judges are escorted outside from the chambers house and into the courthouse. During high-profile cases, few spectators fit into the awkward, makeshift downstairs courtroom.

Security is the reason why commissioners will move Judge Gregory Chelak to a new location, the newly renovated Malhame building on Broad Street, as soon as possible, said Pike County Commissioner Karl Wagner.